Is off the side of the pool better than nothing at all for practicing starts?
The pool I practice in has no start blocks.
Learning how to dive start here.
Thanks
Parents
Former Member
Sometimes there are no starting blocks because the pool is not deep enough to dive into and there is no supervision or lifeguarding. Novice divers need additional depth; big/tall strong people especially. The minimum depth requirements are there for a reason. Modern competitive dives go much deeper that the old-school "skip like a rock across the water surface" flat racing starts.
Striking the bottom can have catastrophic results. I remember a tall Jr National caliber swimmer breaking vertebra in his neck on a dive into 3'6" water (legal allowable minimum depth at that time). Fortunately he was not paralyzed and was able to return to swimming a year after surgery to fuse his neck. He was one of the lucky ones.
Be careful and ideally you would have somebody supervising you.
Sometimes there are no starting blocks because the pool is not deep enough to dive into and there is no supervision or lifeguarding. Novice divers need additional depth; big/tall strong people especially. The minimum depth requirements are there for a reason. Modern competitive dives go much deeper that the old-school "skip like a rock across the water surface" flat racing starts.
Striking the bottom can have catastrophic results. I remember a tall Jr National caliber swimmer breaking vertebra in his neck on a dive into 3'6" water (legal allowable minimum depth at that time). Fortunately he was not paralyzed and was able to return to swimming a year after surgery to fuse his neck. He was one of the lucky ones.
Be careful and ideally you would have somebody supervising you.
